Calculating-machine.



A. F LPQOLE. CALCULATIN xMACHINEi" APPLICATION man NOV. 25; m3.

Patented Mar. 4,- 1919.

A. F. POOLE.

CALCULA TING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED flovlzs. 19131-- 1,296,1 19' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Pathted Mar. 4,1919.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR I. POOLE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO

THE WAHL COMPANY, or WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, a co roRA'rIoN 'OE DELA- WARE.

CALCULATING-MACHINE.

the provision of a totalizer clear. printing device which will give an indication of when a total has been completely extracted from the totalizer.

' Another object of my invention is the provision of a calculating machine embodying a typewriter and providing the typewriter with a special characteristic mark which the operator is to print after printing out a total from the machine, and further in providing a special interlock for the characteristic mark whereby the printing of i the same is prevented unless the total is wholly cleared from the machine.

'A further object of my invention is the provision of a totalizer having mechanism adapted to cooperate with the above described printing mechanism and adapted to be used on a calculating machine of the type described in Patent Number 893,719, issued to John O Wahl, July 21st, 1908. Reference will show that this machine operates in conjunction with a Remington typewriter and inserts the number in its totalizer digit by digit during the printing of the same by the typewriter numeral keys. The totalizer which is the subject of my present invention has associated with it an interlock operating with the printing mechanism of the Wahl machine so that a special characteristic mark cannot be printed unless the number wheels of the totalizer'stand at zero.

A further object of my invention is the peculiar arrangement of a lock for the totalizer clear signal to the end that when the key for printing the characteristic mark is locked, the pressure of the key, in case one tries to operate said key, is exerted directly against the frame of the typewriter Specification of Letters Patent.

One ofthe objects of my invention is Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

Application filed November 25, 1913. Serial No. 802.862.

itself. In this respect, my present invention may be considered as an improvement on the device shown in my copending application for calculatin machines, Serial Number 757 ,934, filed 1V arch 31st, 1913, and I do not wish to herein claim any'of the matters of invention disclosed in said copending appli-' cation, since claims to all subject-matter common to this application and my copending one have been claimed in said copending application. x

A further object of, my invention is the provision of a totalizer clear signal mechanism which shall be simple in cpnstruction, positive in action, and easy of manufacture.

These and other objects of my invention are described in the accompanying specification, in the drawings of which:

Figure 1 is the right side elevation of my totalizer.

Fig. 2 is a section along the line 2-2, of

Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view looking from above, along the line 33, of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the locking mechanism. I

Fig. 5 is an illustration of the particular type bar carrying the totalizer clear signal. 7

As above stated, my invention is particularly designed to be used in connection With the calculating machine described in the aforesaid patent. Reference thereto will showa totalizer mounted on a typewriter carriage, a set of numeral keys, any one of which serves to operate a master wheel 49 and'a master dog 208, also that the depressing of any numeral keys results in the master wheel 49 and dog 208 moving in the following sequence: I

(a) Dog 208 moves in a counter clockwise direction (Fig. 1), thus unlocking the chain of totalizer gears at the actuated gear:

(5) The master wheel rotates an amount depending upon the key actuated:

1(0) The dog returns to its original position:

\ (d) The carriage escapes, bringing the totalizer wheel ofthe next lower order into v engagement witlrlthe master wheel.

It is to be noted hat the actuation of the zero key will result in the sequence above motion of the master'wheel consequent upon.

the actuating of any key will be'determined, and thus anumber which is in the totalizer may be printed out by putting the reversing handle in its subtracting position and copying out the exhibited total, which will thereupon be subtracted from the totalizer and the totalizer will be cleared.

Since the mechanism and the operation of the Wahl machine is very thoroughly described in the patent above referred to, I shall not now enter into a further description of them, but shall premise that the actuation of a typewriter numeral key results in the master key, master dog and carriage moving in the above recited sequence. The master wheel numbered 49 and the master dog 208 in this present. application correspond in position and function to the master wheel and master dog bearing the same numbers in the patent of Wahl above referred to.

Suitably supported ,by its side plates 10 and 11 is a totalizer constructed similarly to the totalizer of the above mentioned Wahl patent. This consists of a set of carrying gears 12 loosely mounted on a shaft 13 rigid between the plates 10 and 11 and which are adapted to cooperate seriatim with a master Wheel 49 rotatably mounted in the frame-work, and a set of carryable carryable gears 14 serve to connect'the carrying wheels 12. Arms 16 have heels 19 adapted to be engaged seriatz'm by the master dog 208. The carrying gears 12 are provided with carrying teeth, which cooperate with the carryable gears 14 and thus transfer the tens at the proper time. The chain of gearing composed of the carrying gears and the carryable gears 14 is normally locked; therefore, in order for the master wheel 4.9 to operate on any carrying wheel 12 except the one in the units place the master dog 208 acts on a swinging arm 16, thus raising the carryablegear 14 mounted thereon out of mesh with the carrying gears 12 to the right and left, andunlocking the actuated carrying gear 12 from the next one to the' right. The totalizer is mounted on a truck 20 moving with the typewriter carriage. Numbers are inserted in the totalizer by the master wheel one digit at a time, beginning with the digit in the highest place and ending with the digit in the units place. During the insertion of a number the typewriter carriage escapes step by step to the left after the insertion of each digit, thus bringing successive carrying gears, 12 into mesh with the carrying gear 49 and succes:

shall now describe the parts peculiar to my present invention.

Rigidly supported between the side plates 10 and 11 is a shaft 21', on which is loosely mounted a set of idle gears 22. These serve to transmit the motion of the carrying wheels to a set of number disks 23 loosely mounted on a shaft 24, by means of the engagement of each idler 22 with a gear 25 rigidly attached to its corresponding number disk 23. Each gear 25 of the set is provided with a short tooth 26, the parts being so proportioned that the motion will be .accu-rat'ely transmitted from the gear 22 to the gear 25 in spite of the point of the tooth 26 being absent.

In the cover 34 is provided a window 36 through which the figures on the number disks 23 may be read, and the position of the short tooth 26 relative to the numbers on the associated number disk is such that when this tooth. is in the'position shown in Fig. 1, a zero will be exhibited through the window 36 by the number disk 23.

Fulcrumed at 35 in the side plateslOv and 11 and extending between them is a comb 27 (Fig. having a series of teeth 28 which are in the same plane as and adapted to engage with the number disk gears 25.- The comb 27 is held in contact with the long teeth of the gears 25 by means which will hereinafter be described. When the comb is in its normal position (shown in Fig. l) the teeth of the gears 25 will make-contact with said comb as these gears rotate.

The comb 27 has rigid with it, a lever 29 having a cam surface 30 which is adapted to engage with the sliding piece 31, mounted by studs 32 and 33 on the side plate. (Fig. 1.) These studs 32 and 33 constrain the sliding piece 31'to a limited motion as determined by the slots 40 and 41 in said piece 31.

On the bottom of the piece 31 is a boss 42, (Figs. 1, 2 and 4) extending into the plane of the side plate 11 and having a shapcas viewed in Fig. 1, approximately similar to the heels 19 of the swinging arms 16. A spring 43 rigidly mounted in the side plate 11 (Fig. 1)* serves to give the sliding piece 31 and levei 29 a tendency to move upward. However, since the comb 27 is rigid with this lever 29 the fact of any number wheel of the totalizer not being at zero will serve to maintain the sliding piece 31 in the position shown in Fig. 1'. When all the number Wheels of the totalizer are at zero, all the totalizer-the condition that when the totalizer is not at zero, thesliding piece 31, with its boss 42, will .be in the position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. When the totalizer is at zero, the piece 31 will rise as determined by contact of the comb 27 with the short teeth 26.

Rigidly mounted on the frame of the machine is a safety bar 44, having a slot 45 (shown in Fig. 4) which is in the same vertical plane as the master dog 208. As the master dog acts on successive heels 19, during the insertion of a, number in the totalizer, these heels enter the slot 45. Rigid with the master dog is a second dog 46. Reference to Fig. 4 shows clearly that the slot is not in the plane of the second dog. Consequently if a body is interposed between this safety bar and the second dog, the master dog will be unable to rotate, and the keys of the adding machine will be locked.

Now, the boss 42 described in the previous paragraph is SO constructed that when the sliding piece 31 is in a position corresponding to the number being in the totalizer, the

'boss 42 will be in the position shown in Fig. 4. The position of this boss relative to the carrying wheels 12 of the totalizer is such that when the totalizer is in a position one space to the left of its units position, the boss will be in the same vertical plane as the second dog 46. Consequently when in position shown in Fig. 4, the numeral keys of the add -ing machine will be locked for the boss 42 will prevent rotation of the second dog 46 since rotation of the latter will j am the boss between the dog 46 and the safety bar 44,

which, it will be remembered, is rigid with the frame of the machine.

Reference to the machine described in the above cited Wahl patent discloses that actuation of the 0 key of the calculating machine results in the counter clockwise rotation of the master dog 208 (Fig. 1 of this application), consequently when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 4 of this application, operation of this 0 key will be prevented. On type bar 47 of the 0 key in its shift position is a star or other characteristic mark as shown in Fig. 5, and from the preceding it is apparent that the printing of this star will be prevented for the same reasons which prevent the printing of the O.

I shall now describe the general mode of operation of the machine:

Numbers are inserted by means of the keys until all the items of the required calculation have been entered. The machineis then put Oi into a subtracting condition, and the total exhibited by the totalizer is subtracted out, beginning with the digit in the highest order, and proceeding toward the units order. should result in the totalizer being at zero when the digit in the units order-has been subtracted. The spring 48 will then withdog 46, yet this boss 42 will be lifted above the top of the master dog 46, and the 0 key may be manipulated. printing a O to the right of the total printed on the work sheet, .the shift key of the typewriter is manipulated, and the star is printed.

From the foregoing it is evident that the This However, instead of draw the boss 42 from the position shown in Fig. 4, and although the totalizer at that I time is in a position so that the boss 42 is in the same vertical plane as the second master star cannot be printed in the space to the right of the printed total exceptthe totalizer stands at zero so accordingly the general rule for operation of the machine will be to print the star after every total. In case the total has not been completely extracted, the attention'of-the operator will be called to this for the reason of her not being able to print this star. After proper correction has been made in the totalizer, the star may be printed.

. I have not illustrated either the typewriter or the construction of the shift key, since such constructions are well-known in the art; the shifting mechanism is illustrated inmany typewriter patents, and the combination of the typewriter with the tounits place before beginning a list of gures as well as after extracting a total. This will afford a double check on their work,-

since it will insure that the totalizer is clear before any numbers are inserted in 1t, and

talizer actuator is very fuliy illustrated and this star in the space immediately after the also will insure that it is clear after a total has been copied out. This will eliminate errors due to beginning the work with a totalizer having a. number already in it, thereby resulting in a false total of the numbers afterward inserted. I

In case itshould be desired to use this device in connection with a typewriter which has no shift key it would only be necessary to provide an extra type bar adapted to print the characteristic totalizer clear mark and to connect. this to an additional cam in the actuator, which cam would have the same function and operation as the cam to which the zero key is connected in the cited W ahl patent. Such aconstruction could be readily made by those skilled in the art, and I consider it an obvious equivalent of my invention.

Attention is called to the compactness of this locking mechanism. The cams for determining the zero position of the number disks are made on the number disks them selves by the simple process of shortening one of the teeth of the number disk gears. -'Thel entire locking mechanism occuples but one additional decimal space in the total izer, and since this space is needed for the printing of'the totalizer clear signal, in any event, no space is wasted.

I desire to call particular attention to the fact that the control of the totalizer clear signal is individual to each totalizer. That is, one may have a plurality of totalizers on the truck 20, and each totalizer will determine for itself, irrespective of the condition of any other totalizer, whether or not the course the particular characteristic type which maybe easily changed on existing machines) and nochange is required in the actuator of the Wahl machine, totalizers having this mechanism may be used withthe Wahl machines that are alread in use. This feature of course is very esirable from a commercial standpoint. For the same reason, totalizers with and without the totalizer clear signal may be used on the same machine.

Should the spring 43 fail'to function, that is, fail to raise the boss 42 upon the totalizers being returned to 0, no error will result for the operator will simply be prevented from printing the. star when she should print it, and her attention will be drawn to the totalizer. clear, she may manipulate the boss 42 with her fingers, so that while she may be delayed inv her operation, she will not make an error.

It is desirable to make the number gear 25 in the units place slightly larger than the balance of the number gears for the purpose of taking-practically all of the thrust of the spring 48. .When the totalizer gears carry through the entire chain as in the case where l is added to 99!) 99, the power to move the highest number gear must be transmitted through the entire chain of gearing, hence any friction on the gear 25 in the highest place is undesirable. By making the gear in the units place slightly larger than the balance of the number gears or by gradually Seeing that the totalizer is the gear in the highest order, the friction of the comb 27 upon. the gear train is always on the gears of lower orders except of course in the case where there is a digit in the highest order followed by a string of zeros. However, since this last recited case is of infrequent occurrence, and since the making of gears 25 of different sizes is an expeclient to make something which works already work better instead of being neces sary to make the device work at all, the last recited case is not a particular detri ment. 4

I have not attempted to show this slight difference of size in thedrawings since making one gear a few thousandths of an inch larger in diameter than the next adjacent one will be sufiicient tokeep the tooth 28 of the comb from contacting witlrsuch adjacent gear, but I have herein described the construction, and wish the drawings to be interpreted in the light of this disclosure.

It is evident that a result similar to the making of the number gears 25 of various sizes could be obtained by making the contacting surfaces of the teeth 28 of the comb 27 in a plane slightly inclined to the axis of the comb 27 instead of a plane passing through said axis as shown in the drawings of this application.

-Many changes and modifications may be made in the precise structure herein shown, without departing from the spirit of my invention, since I claim:

1. In a recording calculating machine the combination of, a totalizer including a set of gears, actuating mechanism therefor including a universal member-adapted to be moved each time said actuating mechanism operates said totalizer, and a sliding plate controlled bysaid totalizer gears, adapted to prevent the movement of said universal member.

2. In a recording calculating machine the combination of, a totalizer including a set of gears, actuating mechanism therefor including a universal member adapted to be moved each time said actuating mechanism operates said totalizer, a lock controlled by said totalizer gears and adapted to prevent the movement of said universal member and a spring acting on said lock.

3. In a totalizer the combination of, a set of numeral wheels, a comb adapted to engage said numeral wheels, a lock whose position is controlled by said numeral wheels and a spring engaging said lock.

4. I a recording calculating machine the combination of, a totalizer including a set of gears, actuating mechanism thereforincluding a universal member adapted to be moved each time said actuating mechanism operates said totalizer, an element rigid with the frame of the machine, and a lock 10&

controlled by .said totalizer gears, and adapted to contact with said universal member and said rigid element.

5. In a recording calculating machine the 1 combination of, a totalizer including a set of gears, means for printmg a characteristic mark, a dog actuated coincidentally with the actuation of said characteristic printing means, an element rigid with the frame of the machine and a lock controlled by said totalizer gears and adapted to contact simultaneously with said dog and said rigid element.

6. ,In a recording calculating machine the combination of, a totalizer including a set of gears, actuating mechanism therefor, said totalizer traveling relatively to said ment when said totaliz'er is'in a predetermined position relative to said actuating mechanlsm.

In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in wltnesses.

ARTHUR F. POOLE.

the presence of two Witnesses:

' R, GEO. 0. BOA,

WM. F. WEBER. 

